It was already dark when he returned from his walk. Johanna was gone. The maid whom he met in the corridor told him she had taken her child and a trunk full of clothing and the books which had been sent to Mrs. Linden yesterday.
He went to her room; the sweet scent of violets of which she was so fond pervaded the atmosphere, the afghan on the lounge lay just as it had fallen when she threw it off as she rose. He could not stay---a longing for her seized upon him so powerfully that it well-nigh unmanned him, and he went back to the dining-room. He opened the door half-unconsciously--there sat the judge at the table, dusty and dishevelled from his Brocken tour, but contented to his inmost soul. But--how came this stranger here doing the honors?
The rosy little brunette was just setting the table. She had put on a white apron over her dark dress, the bib fastened smoothly across her full bust. She was just depositing with her round arm half-uncovered by the elbow-sleeve, a plate of cold meat by the judge's place, placing the bottle of beer beside it. And as she did so she laughed at the weary little man so that all her white teeth were displayed.
And this must he bear too, to make his comfort complete! Let them eat who would! Soon he was sitting upstairs in the corner of the sofa in his own room; outside the darkness of a spring night came down, and a girl's voice was singing as if in emulation of the nightingales; that must be the little brunette, Adelaide. At last he heard it sounding up from the depths of the garden.
He did not stir until the judge stood before him.
"Now, I should really like to know, Frank--are you bewitched or am I? What is the matter? Where is madame? The little black thing downstairs, who seems to have fallen out of the clouds, says she is 'gone.'--Gone? What does it mean?"
"Gone!" repeated Frank Linden. It sounded so strange that his friend started.
"Something has happened, Frank,--that old woman, the mother-in-law, has done it. Oh, these women!"
"No, no, it is that affair with Wolff."
The judge gave vent to a long whistle, then he sat down beside Linden and clapped him on the shoulder.